ESPN talent drain continues as legend moves off air

ESPN has gone through some major changes this year with its football coverage on both the professional and college side. The latest is one of the foundational pieces of ESPN’s coverage.

Longtime ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman will be entering his final season as host of ESPN’s anchor NFL shows — NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown and the NFL Draft — this year. He plans to step down at the end of 2016, according to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated. It does not appear Berman will retire, however.

Chris Berman's agent denies retirement report:"Chris is NOT retiring. Loves what he's doing too much and is too young to hang 'em up."

It is one of many major shakeups that has occurred at ESPN of late that could have the football broadcasting throughout the company get shaken up some.

The network moved Chris Fowler off College GameDay at his request to cover the College Football Saturday Night game. Longtime broadcaster Mike Tirico left the network for NBC and opened the way for Sean McDonough to move from college football to the NFL coverage for Monday Night Football.

There have also been several defections from ESPN to FOX Sports 1 that will shake up the broadcast teams and the general makeup of ESPN’s television shows and game coverage.

These moves will certainly have trickle down effects for the SEC coverage and college football coverage on ESPN moving forward. As ESPN continues to cope with the mass exodus of cable subscribers, other big-time departures have included Bill Simmons, Keith Olbermann (again), Colin Cowherd, Jason Whitlock and Skip Bayless.